Due to hearing loss, some individuals have difficulty perceiving or are unable to perceive sound. In order to perceive at least a portion of a sound, these individuals may benefit from the use of a hearing prosthesis. Certain hearing prostheses are designed to assist users having specific types of hearing loss. In a binaural (or bilateral) hearing prosthesis system, a recipient employs a first hearing prosthesis for one of the recipient's ears and a second hearing prosthesis for the recipient's other ear.
The effectiveness of the binaural hearing prostheses depends on the type and severity of a user's hearing loss. Depending on the hearing prostheses employed, the recipient may perceive sound as a person with normal hearing, or the binaural hearing prostheses may allow the recipient to perceive a portion of the sound. For instance, binaural hearing prostheses may allow the recipient to better localize sounds and/or recognize speech in noisy environments. The effectiveness of the binaural hearing prostheses also depends on how well the prostheses are configured for, or “fitted” to, a recipient of the hearing prostheses. Fitting the binaural hearing prostheses, sometimes also referred to as “programming,” “calibrating,” or “mapping,” creates a set of control settings and other data that define the specific characteristics of the stimuli (in the form of acoustic, mechanical, or electrical signals) delivered to the relevant portions of the person's outer ear, middle ear, inner ear, auditory nerve, or other body part. The settings are based in part on the recipient's ability to perceive sounds at one or more frequencies. This configuration information is sometimes referred to as the user's “program” or “map.”